Friday, December 06, 2013

Problems for NSW Liberals

A corruption scandal threatens to engulf the O'Farrell government next year as it prepares to seek a second term in office after energy and resources minister Chris Hartcher resigned from cabinet following raids by investigators.

Mr Hartcher, who remains the MP for Terrigal, announced his resignation on Wednesday only weeks after the offices of his fellow central coast Liberal MPs Chris Spence and Darren Webber were raided by officers from the Independent Commission Against Corruption.

ICAC is believed to be investigating whether political donations were secretly funnelled through a front company for the benefit of the three MPs before the 2011 state election.

Last year Fairfax Media revealed the suspension of two of Mr Hartcher's staff - senior electorate officer Ray Carter and policy adviser Tim Koelma - after the Liberal Party referred allegations they had breached donations laws to the Election Funding Authority.

Mr Koelma resigned from Mr Hartcher's office shortly afterwards, while Mr Carter remains suspended on full pay more than a year later.

It was subsequently revealed a $5000 payment to a company owned by Mr Koelma, Eightbyfive, from Wyong builder Matthew Lusted, sparked the referral by the Liberal Party. Mr Lusted was a preselection candidate for the federal seat

of Dobell on the central coast. Fairfax Media has since been told Mr Lusted was approached for the payment by Mr Carter shortly before the March 2011 state election.

It is understood Mr Lusted's name and others were given to Mr Carter by Wyong mayor Doug Eaton. Mr Eaton has previously refused to comment due to ICAC secrecy provisions.

Property developers have been prohibited from donating to candidates in NSW elections since 2009.

The new Liberal MP for Dobell, Karen McNamara, has also been drawn into the scandal over questions surrounding her fundraising for Mr Webber's election campaign. During her preselection interview for Dobell, Ms McNamara claimed to have raised as much as $100,000 for Mr Webber's campaign.

But this was questioned at the time by Liberal state executive member Hollie Hughes, who had confirmed that official party receipts were far lower.

The discrepancy is believed to have prompted the Liberal Party to examine donations to Mr Webber and Mr Spence and later refer allegations about Mr Carter and Mr Koelma to election funding authorities.

Ms McNamara's husband, John McNamara, was a Wyong Liberal councillor between 2008 and last year. Ms McNamara has previously said she had complied with her obligations as Mr Webber's campaign manager "to the best of my knowledge" and would assist with any inquiries.

The investigation by the Election Funding Authority was referred to ICAC earlier this year. ICAC is believed to be preparing to hold public hearings into the central coast donations matter next year, complicating the Coalition government's preparations for its campaign to seek re-election in 2015.

In a statement, Mr Hartcher said he had resigned following "the issue of a search warrant by the ICAC against me" but that he was "confident I will be cleared of any wrongdoing".

"This is the first contact I have had with the ICAC and given that their investigations have thus far had an unknown timeframe, it is appropriate that I resign," he said.

Premier Barry O'Farrell said in a statement from India, where he is on a trade mission, that Mr Hartcher informed him of his decision on Wednesday. He thanked Mr Hartcher "for his services to the government and the state".

Mr Hartcher is the second casualty from the O'Farrell cabinet after Greg Pearce was sacked as finance minister over a perceived conflict of interest relating to a government board appointment.

Opposition leader John Robertson said the O'Farrell frontbench was "unravelling."

Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey has mocked Labor’s response to a deal he struck with the Australian Greens to end the row of the debt ceiling, calling it "absolutely bizarre".

Mr Hockey on Wednesday reached the extraordinary last-minute deal with the Greens - once dubbed "economic fringe dwellers" by the government - to scrap Australia's $300 billion borrowing limit.

The rare Coalition-Greens alliance, designed to circumvent Labor's opposition, means the Treasurer will no longer have to seek parliamentary approval to lift the maximum borrowing cap.

The deal requires further debt reporting in the budget and its updates.

Greens leader Christine Milne said the debt ceiling had been a "toxic political tool" that rendered the Australian debate around debt artificial.

The new agreement will allow for a "reasonable debate" to take place, she said.

But shadow treasurer Chris Bowen questioned how the new measures would improve the transparency over debt.

"More transparency is always welcome but the ultimate transparency is seeking parliamentary approval and having to answer questions," Mr Bowen told ABC radio.

To suggest that the new requirements would boost transparency "is a bit of a big call", he said.

He accused the Greens of an about-face on the debt issue, saying Senator Milne had originally opposed lifting the ceiling to $500 billion.

"She’s gone from saying that the increase wasn’t justified to ‘why do we have this debt limit at all’," Mr Bowen said.

Mr Hockey said that the reaction of Labor to the debt deal was "absolutely bizarre".

"It’s like a husband being upset that their ex-wife went off and had a cup of coffee with some other man," he said, in reference to the Greens support for the minority Gillard government.

Labor’s Kelvin Thomson joked that the Greens-Coalition alliance was "a bit more than a cup of coffee".

"I think it’s the candlelit dinner and flowers," he told reporters in Canberra on Thursday.

The Coalition, which railed against debt continually while in opposition, will have unrestricted access to credit, only having to issue a statement to both houses of Parliament every time it racks up another $50 billion in debt.

With just days to go before the existing legislated debt ceiling was reached on December 12, the Treasurer sealed the agreement late on Wednesday with Greens leader Christine Milne.

To do so, he has agreed to increased reporting requirements to Parliament on the nature of Commonwealth borrowings and the ongoing debt position of the government, but Parliament will have surrendered its capacity to veto government borrowings.

Mr Hockey praised the Greens for coming to the "sensible middle" on economic policy.

"The Labor Party is stuck in the basement on economic policy and all of their own making," Mr Hockey told Sky News.

Senator Milne was due to introduce the legislative repeal of the debt ceiling in the Senate on Wednesday evening with a view to the controversial bill being passed by the House of Representatives on Thursday.

The strange political marriage came after Coalition frustrations reached boiling point as Labor and the Greens used their combined numbers in the Senate to block an increase to a new limit of half a trillion dollars - a $200billion increase in one increment.

In a letter to Senator Milne on Wednesday, Mr Hockey wrote: "We have agreed to repeal the current legislative limit on the total face value of stock and securities on issue set out in the Commonwealth Inscribed Stock Act 1911."

Earlier in the day, Labor had sought to head off the deal which it knew would render its opposition to the proposed $200 billion debt increase irrelevant.

In response to a question from Opposition Leader Bill Shorten, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said he agreed that the Greens were on the economic margins.

"I agree, Madam Speaker, that the Greens have been economic fringe-dwellers, and that just means that [Labor] members opposite are worse," he said.

Labor brandished a photo of Senator Milne in the lower house to taunt the government, suggesting it was taking its orders from the minor party.

It was the second day in a row that her photo had been used after Immigration Minister Scott Morrison made the same case against Labor on Tuesday when it sided with the Greens to block temporary protection visas.

Under the arrangement, Mr Hockey has agreed to "comprehensive debt reporting" in the annual budget papers as well as in other regular economic statements and forecasts.

There will also be additional debt statements tabled in Parliament within three sitting days of a $50billion increase in debt, setting out the reasons, the extent of the debt incurred as a result of falling revenue, higher spending, capital purchases, or payments to states and territories.

Other transparency measures have been agreed to but the statements will not set out specific borrowing purposes in all cases, despite a Greens request for that level of detail.

Shadow finance minister Tony Burke was furious, and slammed the Coalition for breaching its intentions to reduce debt and its statements opposed to dealing with the Greens.

He said Mr Hockey "was no Peter Costello" and had even suffered the humiliation of not getting to announce the move, which had been announced first by Senator Milne.

"In one stroke today, they cut a deal with the Greens, to make Australia's debt allowed to be unlimited," he said.

"The level of hypocrisy today from the government is way beyond where I thought they would be."

Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox strongly supported the removal of the debt ceiling, saying it was "good public policy".

He said the ceiling was an "artificial device" that imposes unnecessary inflexibility and creates unhelpful openings for political opportunism.

"It is vital that we have transparency of, and clear accountabilities for, public finances but the debt ceiling is a poor substitute for these and, at best, gives a false assurance that appropriate restraint is being exercised," he said in a statement.

The deal came at the end of a day in which a grim-faced Treasurer faced up to news he said showed the economy was "stuck in second gear".

The economy grew by just 0.6 per cent in the September quarter and grew 2.3 per cent over the year, well below the 3 per cent annual growth rate regarded as normal.

However Mr Hockey said the outlook was worse than the figures suggested.

So-called net exports accounted for 90 per cent of the growth over the past year.

They were unusually high because export volumes were climbing as imported machinery for mining collapsed.

"We have some challenges ahead as mining investment drops from around 8 per cent of gross domestic product to somewhere per cent over the next few years," Mr Hockey said.

That is going to create a growth hole in the economy.

On the positive side the exchange rate was coming down, interest rates were historically low and retail sales, consumer confidence and business confidence were lifting. But they weren’t yet lifting by enough.

The mid-year economic and fiscal outlook due within days would "clearly illustrate the full state of the books we have inherited". But it would not be used to unveil "a massive round of spending cuts,” other than those needed to pay for the extra $1.2 billion of spending on schools announced on Monday.

Questions of spending would be left to the May budget which would be drawn up after considering the report of the Commission of Audit due in January.

Even in the budget there might be fewer cuts than some have been expecting. "We are not obsessed with cuts," the treasurer said.

"We've got to fill the hole. We've got to find ways to stimulate the non-mining side of the economy. That means re-tooling the nation. So much of what Tony Abbott and Warren Truss and myself are focused on is about how we can stimulate productive infrastructure investment."

Senior public servant Tara McCarthy sacked for being a whistleblower, ICAC hears

The head of the NSW State Emergency Service, Murray Kear, sacked a whistleblower who raised concerns about the misuse of funds by one of his mates, a corruption inquiry has been told.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption heard on Tuesday that Mr Kear "allowed the importance of ... mateship to permeate the manner in which he administered a significant public entity".

Mr Kear sacked Deputy Commissioner Tara McCarthy in May after she initiated investigations into the use of SES funds by her fellow deputy, Steven Pearce.

The ICAC heard Mr Kear and Mr Pearce had known each other since at least 2006 and "the two men and their families holiday together".
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Counsel assisting the ICAC, Michael Fordham, SC, said Mr Kear faced a potential criminal charge if the inquiry found Ms McCarthy was "terminated as a reprisal" for investigating Mr Pearce.

Ms McCarthy was employed in November 2012 to review procurement contracts and deliver budget savings.

In his opening address, Mr Fordham said Ms McCarthy's moves to ensure "appropriate governance" relating to overtime, use of motor vehicles, parking and travel caused some "disquiet" in the SES ranks.

She had investigated the use by Mr Pearce of his corporate credit card to pay for roof-racks "to carry surfboards" on his SES vehicle and later to pay for electric brakes to be installed "for the towing of his camper trailer".

Mr Kear signed off on the installations on the basis the money was repaid 15 months and two years respectively after the events.

After further credit card statements were brought to Ms McCarthy, she engaged public service auditor IAB to do a "desktop audit", which uncovered potential irregularities totalling more than $11,000.

Ms McCarthy had also raised concerns about Mr Pearce approving $60,000 worth of overtime for one colleague, the private use of a company car by another, and entering into two consultancy agreements worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The inquiry heard Mr Pearce "provided badging and logos" so the contracts would look like SES documents. The contracts were later terminated.

"The 1902 short story about a cursed talisman that grants wishes, The Monkey's Paw, written by W.W. Jacobs, opens with the line: 'Be careful what you wish for, you may receive it'," Mr Fordham said.

"Commissioner Kear and the SES needed an efficient, process-driven person to guide the SES and improve its governance. That is exactly what it got in Ms McCarthy.

"Having got governance and accountability it began to interfere with what seems to have been regarded as an appropriate status quo."

Mr Fordham said Ms McCarthy saved the SES "significant amounts of money" during her tenure.

Despite the fact that there were "never any competence or performance issues" arising out of her employment, she was not given a chance to comment before she was sacked.

"It is telling that a cab had already been arranged to take Ms McCarthy home," Mr Fordham said.

"Commissioner Kear openly stated that one or both of his deputies had to go. He chose Tara McCarthy."

The inquiry heard that Mr Kear had made false statements to ICAC investigators. He also failed to 'identify, acknowledge of appropriately manage the clear conflict of interest that arose out of his relationship" with Mr Pearce.

Mr Kear took leave earlier this year pending the outcome of the inquiry.

Many people find an Indian accent amusing and some are good at imitating it. Jokes in public can be unwise, however. Monty Panesar is actually England-born of Indian descent. He is a Sikh

An Australian cricket announcer has been sacked on the spot after using an Indian accent to pronounce the name of Engand spinner Monty Panesar.

David Nixon was fired from his match-day duties by Cricket Australia after his announcement in England's tour match at Traeger Park.

He appeared to mock the cricketer, who plays for Essex, and was relieved of his duties after lunch on the second and final day.

There were reports that he used an Indian accent when announcing the name of England bowler Monty Panesar, but CA would not comment on the specifics of the dismissal.

But Nixon took to his Twitter account to explain that his 'style' did not work with the broadcaster. He wrote: 'Really? I love Monty P - cult hero. He should bat 3. My style didn't fit theirs. That's all.'

I don't really see what's offensive. Panesar is a Sikh and their turbans tell us that the guys in the picture are Sikhs. And Indians are fonder of bright colours than Anglos are. Why are we not allowed to mention that Panesar is a Sikh? He even wears a Sikh head-covering while playing. Sikhism is a religion, not a race

Cricket Australia has apologised for referencing England spinner Monty Panesar with a photo it tweeted of four bearded men wearing turbans.

CA posted the picture - taken from Instagram - on its official Twitter account late Thursday morning, day one of the second Ashes Test in Adelaide, with the caption: "Will the real Monty Panesar please stand up".

The men were dressed in bright purple, red, green and yellow clothes, depicting children's TV characters the Teletubbies and orginated from here.

The tweet sparked claims of racism and CA promptly deleted the post. "We apologise for any offence caused by our earlier tweet. That was certainly not the intention. It has been removed," it wrote.

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Background

Postings from Brisbane, Australia by John Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.) -- former member of the Australia-Soviet Friendship Society, former anarcho-capitalist and former member of the British Conservative party.

Most academics are lockstep Leftists so readers do sometimes doubt that I have the qualifications mentioned above. Photocopies of my academic and military certificates are however all viewable here

For overseas readers: The "ALP" is the Australian Labor Party -- Australia's major Leftist party. The "Liberal" party is Australia's major conservative political party.

In most Australian States there are two conservative political parties, the city-based Liberal party and the rural-based National party. But in Queensland those two parties are amalgamated as the LNP.

Again for overseas readers: Like the USA, Germany and India, Australia has State governments as well as the Federal government. So it may be useful to know the usual abbreviations for the Australian States: QLD (Queensland), NSW (New South Wales), WA (Western Australia), VIC (Victoria), TAS (Tasmania), SA (South Australia).

For American readers: A "pensioner" is a retired person living on Social Security

"Digger" is an honorific term for an Australian soldier

Another lesson in Australian: When an Australian calls someone a "big-noter", he is saying that the person is a chronic and rather pathetic seeker of admiration -- as in someone who often pulls out "big notes" (e.g. $100.00 bills) to pay for things, thus endeavouring to create the impression that he is rich. The term describes the mentality rather than the actual behavior with money and it aptly describes many Leftists. When they purport to show "compassion" by advocating things that cost themselves nothing (e.g. advocating more taxes on "the rich" to help "the poor"), an Australian might say that the Leftist is "big-noting himself". There is an example of the usage here. The term conveys contempt. There is a wise description of Australians generally here

Another bit of Australian: Any bad writing or messy anything was once often described as being "like a pakapoo ticket". In origin this phrase refers to a ticket written with Chinese characters - and thus inscrutably confusing to Western eyes. These tickets were part of a Chinese gambling game called "pakapoo".

Two of my ancestors were convicts so my family has been in Australia for a long time. As well as that, all four of my grandparents were born in the State where I was born and still live: Queensland. And I am even a member of the world's second-most condemned minority: WASPs (the most condemned is of course the Jews -- which may be why I tend to like Jews). So I think I am as Australian as you can get. I certainly feel that way. I like all things that are iconically Australian: meat pies, Vegemite, Henry Lawson etc. I particularly pride myself on my familiarity with the great Australian slanguage. I draw the line at Iced Vo-Vos and betting on the neddies, however. So if I cannot comment insightfully on Australian affairs, who could?

My son Joe

On all my blogs, I express my view of what is important primarily by the readings that I select for posting. I do however on occasions add personal comments in italicized form at the beginning of an article.

I am rather pleased to report that I am a lifelong conservative. Out of intellectual curiosity, I did in my youth join organizations from right across the political spectrum so I am certainly not closed-minded and am very familiar with the full spectrum of political thinking. Nonetheless, I did not have to undergo the lurch from Left to Right that so many people undergo. At age 13 I used my pocket-money to subscribe to the "Reader's Digest" -- the main conservative organ available in small town Australia of the 1950s. I have learnt much since but am pleased and amused to note that history has since confirmed most of what I thought at that early age.

I imagine that the the RD is still sending mailouts to my 1950s address!

I am an army man. Although my service in the Australian army was chiefly noted for its un-notability, I DID join voluntarily in the Vietnam era, I DID reach the rank of Sergeant, and I DID volunteer for a posting in Vietnam. So I think I may be forgiven for saying something that most army men think but which most don't say because they think it is too obvious: The profession of arms is the noblest profession of all because it is the only profession where you offer to lay down your life in performing your duties. Our men fought so that people could say and think what they like but I myself always treat military men with great respect -- respect which in my view is simply their due.

The kneejerk response of the Green/Left to people who challenge them is to say that the challenger is in the pay of "Big Oil", "Big Business", "Big Pharma", "Exxon-Mobil", "The Pioneer Fund" or some other entity that they see, in their childish way, as a boogeyman. So I think it might be useful for me to point out that I have NEVER received one cent from anybody by way of support for what I write. As a retired person, I live entirely on my own investments. I do not work for anybody and I am not beholden to anybody. And I have NO investments in oil companies or mining companies

Although I have been an atheist for all my adult life, I have no hesitation in saying that the single book which has influenced me most is the New Testament. And my Scripture blog will show that I know whereof I speak.

The Rt. Rev. Phil Case (Moderator of the Presbyterian church in Queensland) is a Pharisee, a hypocrite, an abomination and a "whited sepulchre".

English-born Australian novellist, Patrick White was a great favourite in literary circles. He even won a Nobel prize. But I and many others I have spoken to find his novels very turgid and boring. Despite my interest in history, I could only get through about a third of his historical novel Voss before I gave up. So why has he been so popular in literary circles? Easy. He was a miserable old Leftist coot, and, incidentally, a homosexual. And literary people are mostly Leftists with similar levels of anger and alienation from mainstream society. They enjoy his jaundiced outlook, his dissatisfaction, rage and anger.

Would you believe that there once was a politician whose nickname was "Honest"? "Honest" Frank Nicklin M.M. was a war hero, a banana farmer and later the conservative Premier of my home State of Queensland in the '60s. He was even popular with the bureaucracy and gave the State a remarkably tranquil 10 years during his time in office. Sad that there are so few like him.

Revered Labour Party leader Gough Whitlam was a very erudite man so he cannot have been unaware of the similarities of his famous phrase “the Party, the platform, the people” with an earlier slogan: "Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Fuehrer". It's basically the same slogan in reverse order.

Australia's original inhabitants were a race of pygmies, some of whom survived into modern times in the mountainous regions of the Atherton tableland in far North Queensland. See also here. Below is a picture of one of them taken in 2007, when she was 105 years old and 3'7" tall

Julia Gillard, a failed feminist flop. She was given the job of Prime Minister of Australia but her feminist preaching was so unpopular that she was booted out of the job by her own Leftist party. Her signature "achievements" were the carbon tax and the mining tax, both of which were repealed by the next government.

The "White Australia Policy: "The Immigration Restriction Act was not about white supremacy, racism, or the belief that whites were higher up the evolutionary tree than the coloured races. Rather, it was designed to STOP the racist exploitation of non-whites (all of whom would have been illiterate peasants practicing religions and cultures anathema to progressive democracy) being conscripted into a life of semi-slavery in a coolie-worked plantation economy for the benefit of the absolute monarchs, hereditary aristocracy and the super-wealthy companies and share-holders of the northern hemisphere.

A great little kid

In November 2007, a four-year-old boy was found playing in a croc-infested Territory creek after sneaking off pig hunting alone with four dogs and a puppy. The toddler was found five-and-a-half hours after he set off from his parents' house playing in a creek with the puppy. Amazingly, Daniel Woditj also swam two creeks known to be inhabited by crocs during his adventurous romp. Mr Knight said that after walking for several kilometres, Daniel came to a creek and swam across it. Four of his dogs "bailed up" at the creek but the youngster continued on undaunted with his puppy to a second creek. Mr Knight said Daniel swam the second croc-infested creek and walked on for several more kilometres. "Captain is a hard bushman and Daniel is following in his footsteps. They breed them tough out bush."

A great Australian: His eminence George Pell. Pictured in devout company before his elevation to Rome

There are also two blogspot blogs which record what I think are my main recent articles here and here. Similar content can be more conveniently accessed via my subject-indexed list of short articles here or here (I rarely write long articles these days)

NOTE: The archives provided by blogspot below are rather inconvenient. They break each month up into small bits. If you want to scan whole months at a time, the backup archives will suit better. See here or here